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Tuesday

Mar 12, 2019 at 6:57 AMMar 12, 2019 at 7:07 AM

US ELECTION

Democrats plan

2020 convention

WASHINGTON (TNS) — Democrats will hold their 2020 presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee, the party said Monday, attempting to shore up support in a traditionally blue state that President Donald Trump won in the last election.

The selection of the city is part of a strategy by Democrats to put more emphasis on once-dependable regions in the upper Midwest that 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton neglected in her presidential run.

The convention will be held July 13-16, more than a month before Republicans gather August 24-27 in Charlotte.

Democrats held their 2016 convention in Philadelphia and nominee Hillary Clinton concentrated considerable time and money around the city and across Pennsylvania only to come up short there.

Milwaukee has never hosted a major party convention and is smaller than the other two finalists, Miami Beach and Houston.

— Bloomberg News

FLORIDA

Warrants show

sex sting method

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TNS) — Police still haven’t said how they tricked two women to go outside a Jupiter day spa to secretly set up surveillance cameras inside.

But records released Monday show it was referred to as a “tactical ruse” to get the women to step outside the spa that authorities believed was actually a brothel.

While the women stood outside in the Orchids of Asia Day Spa parking lot, three cops discreetly hid the cameras inside the lobby and four treatment rooms so they could watch — in real time — the male clients paying for sexual favors, according to the search warrants.

As they waited, two more women showed up. One of the women, Hua Zhang, told police she lived across the street and “could see what was occurring inside the spa on her cellphone,” which let cops know she had her own cameras set up.

Police seized the cameras and equipment when they were inside, according to records, since there would be probable cause to believe it captured evidence of a crime.

The two women who would later arrive as the sting was underway have since been charged with felonies, and nine Bank of America accounts of the women — Hua Zhang and Lei Wang — have been frozen, according to records.

Judge Laura Ripken, in her opinion, found state prosecutors for Anne Arundel County had given the defense “significantly more” than is legally required in a bill of particulars, a document outlining the facts supporting an indictment.

Ripken is presiding over the Capital Gazette shooting case, in which a Laurel man faces 23 counts in the deaths of five people at the newspaper offices on June 28.

A gunman killed five people in the Capital Gazette newsroom: Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Wendi Winters and John McNamara. Six other staff members in the newsroom that afternoon survived the attack.

Jarrod Ramos, 39, of Laurel, was indicted on 23 charges in the attack, including murder, attempted murder and assault of other employees in the newsroom at the time. The trial is scheduled for June 3-14.

Ramos was present in court for Ripken’s decision. He entered a plea of not guilty, but has requested time to consider a not criminally responsible by reason of insanity plea. The deadline to file that plea is March 15.

—The Capital Gazette

UNITED KINGDOM

Last-minute Brexit

compromise reached

STRASBOURG, France (TNS) — British Prime Minister Theresa May said late Monday she had secured “legally binding” changes to her Brexit deal, following last-minute talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

The compromise includes changes that confirm Britain’s ability to exit the so-called backstop provision that guarantees an open Irish border.

This language would come as a supplement to the withdrawal agreement that British lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected in January — and are due to vote on again Tuesday.

It guarantees “that the EU cannot act with the intent of applying the backstop indefinitely,” said May, after a meeting with Juncker in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is meeting this week.

She also emphasized that whatever comes after the backstop cannot replicate it.

— dpa

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